Windows .NET Server Beta 3 Available

Microsoft Corp. formally released the Beta 3 version of Windows .NET Server on Friday, a few days after unveiling the next-generation operating system's feature set.

The Beta 3 test marks the graduation of the pre-release code from the limited number of testers looking at the Beta 1 and Beta 2 versions.

"At this beta we will move into a much broader beta where we have a number of beta testers that will start to number into the hundreds of thousands," says Bob O'Brien, Microsoft's group product manager for the Windows Server division.

Unlike the Beta 1 version, that shipped about a year ago, and the Beta 2 version, released about eight months ago, Beta 3 is largely feature complete. "Testers will be looking at it from the standpoint of efficiency, completeness, not features," O'Brien says.

Microsoft positions the follow-on to the Windows 2000 generation of servers as an application development environment for Web services.
The code will probably go through two release candidates before its general release, expected in the middle of next year.